Kenner City Councilman Keith Reynaud said Wednesday he will postpone votes on all
six city charter amendments he is sponsoring, including one that could give hefty pay raises to the mayor, police chief and council members. The proposals are on Thursday's council agenda but, in light of Reynaud's statement, likely won't be decided then.

The deferrals won't be indefinite, however, Reynaud said. He wants to push at least one of the proposals to a council vote before four new members take their seats July 1.

"Something is broken, and it needs to be fixed," said
Reynaud, who joined the council in 2012. "The question is, as a council member should I kick this can down the road and say I'm not going to deal with while
I'm on the council, because it's not politically correct to deal with it?"

Reynaud wants the council as soon as possible to consider a
proposal to ensure the mayor may not hire or fire council staff. The
proposal is not aimed at Mayor Mike Yenni, Reynaud said. Rather, he said previous
mayors have moved council aides to administrative positions, as retaliation against council members who fell out of favor with the mayor.

He said he wants to ensure this proposal is put to
Kenner voters on the Nov. 4 ballot. The deadline to submit propositions for
that referendum date is July 23. The new council that will take office July 1 is scheduled to meet only twice before the deadline, on July 3 and July 17.

The current version of Reynaud's proposal would repeal a charter provision that exempts council staff from civil service regulations. A new
provision in a different section of the charter would stipulate that council staff "shall not
be subject to the supervision or control" of the mayor or any member of the
administration, while retaining the exemption from civil service.

The section up for repeal says council staffers are
"to be hired by each council member," without specifying anything about the
mayor's influence. The section does not explicitly say who controls the council
clerk's staff. The section also limits council clerk staff to five and council
aides to a total of seven, one for each council member.

The proposed new section retains the hiring limits but
follows with what could be read as an exception if four council members agree
to hire additional staff: "The Council, by majority vote of the full membership
of the Council, may also employ additional administrative personnel for the
Clerk of the Council, for Council or any committee or committees of the
Council, or for any one or more members of the Council."

Reynaud said the provision is designed to address mayoral
control, not hiring.

"All I want to do is to clarify the mayor does not have the
authority to terminate anybody on the third floor," Reynaud said, referring to the City Hall location of the council's offices.

The most controverislal of Reynaud's proposals would change how elected
officials receive compensation. They mayor, police chief and council members
would receive salaries defined as a percentage of what 24th Judicial
District Court judges make. It would result of big raises from current levels.

Reynaud said the purpose is twofold. It would relieve council members from the job of setting their own pay, Reynaud said, which he suspects is what voters want. For another, pay increases would encourage more candidates to run for office, Reynaud said. In this year's quadrennial election cycle, the police chief and three council members -- Reynaud included -- drew no opponents.

Other Reynaud charter proposals include letting the council
to hire its own attorneys, letting the mayor establish pay plans for employees and letting the mayor appoint an acting mayor when the incumbent is away. Reynaud also is proposing that the
city be allowed to borrow money via revenue bonds without a public referendum.

While Reynaud considers mayoral control over council staff most urgent, he said he wants to be sure present and future council colleagues are on
board before pushing all his proposals to a vote. Newcomers Keith Conley, Dominick Impastato, Leonard Cline and Mike Sigur join the council on July 1.

The reason for initially putting them on the agenda Thursday was to
open public discussion, Reynaud said. "I've had informal conversations with many, many citizens in
my district," Reynaud said. "I'm doing everything exactly procedurally how
you're supposed to do it."